The Boy with Green Hair (1948)

great film, HORRIBLE copy!!!!

I have wanted to have this film on DVD for ages, and was anxiously awaiting it's arrival. Not only did the box look different from the picture displayed next to the product (on the listing with Amazon), the quality of the tranfer was beyond terrible. I am giving it one star, but only out of respect for the film (which is a truly great film) and Joseh Losey - a great director, who deserves more respect for his work than he has received with this terible, terrible film transfer!

I have a copy on VHS of "The Boy With Green Hair" that I recorded off TV years ago - and it is better than this DVD version! I simply could not believe that a film on DVD, from Amazon (not even a third party, but from Amazon's own stock of films!)could be so poor. And to charge $17.99 for one of the worse film transfers I have ever seen?

Amazon should be ashamed of having it's name on this product, and actually charging a substantial amount for such a poor quality DVD. This is how reputations get flushed down the toilet.

Does Amazon not have a quality-control division? It would be less of a shock if this was not from Amazon's own stock,but from a third party, and simply purchased through Amazon. But this Is an Amazon product, from their stock. I bought directly from Amazon - again,for a hefty amount.

Has anyone at Amazon actually seen this DVD that it is putting out there?
This film is a classic, and deserves much better treatment.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough that if you love this film as I do, you will Not purchase this DVD! It is not worth 2 cents, much less $18! I purchase a lot of products from Amazon, and this came as quite a shock to me.

Amazon: If you want to keep your loyal customers, you should be more careful about the quality of the products you are selling.

I clearly should have read the negative reviews I now see I am only backing up. You can bet I will now!

The Boy with Green Hair

Shame on you, Amazon!

January 7, 2008

through a childs eyes

i must have been maybe five or six years old when i first saw this film.i loved it!i recently viewed it on vhs and the print was pretty crappy,the color was awful(originally saw it on tv in b&w).i view it now through much
more discriminating eyes and the usual bit of cynicism that comes with age
but i still love this film.the characters may be somewhat cartoonish and the overall feeling of the film may simmer with maudlin sentiment,but the
important thing is how a child may view and understand this film.simple and to the point.war is bad.children suffer horribly,and it is done by the people a child would think should know better...adults.regardless the poor image quality,this film is viewable.get it.watch it with your children.maybe you will get it.peace out. July 6, 2007

A Silly Attempt

The Boy With Green Hair is considered to be an important film for child-star fans because it features Dean Stockwell in the title role. Peter Fry is a war orphan and has lived with many different family members over the years. He finally settles in with Gramp (Pat O'Brien), a former actor who makes Peter feel the most comfortable. He goes to school and lives a normal life, until one day he wakes up and finds that his hair has turned green. The children like his hair, but their parents are afraid and demand that he cut it off. Peter wants to keep it, though, because he feels it is a symbol for war orphans everywhere.

The characters in this film are not well developed aside from Gramp which makes it hard to sympathize with them at all. Peter is a typical child, but his revelation about what his hair symbolizes seems forced and silly. It doesn't help that he turns to the camera and delivers an "inspirational" speech; the film makers were trying too hard to get their point across. Usually classic Hollywood can get it right, but this film is definitely an exception. It could have been a powerful film, but it crossed the fine line between hokum and sentiment. March 20, 2007

The color of hope

A fascinating, underrated little film which is still all too topical & relevant, sad to say. Some modern viewers might find it mawkish -- and certainly it does have a few awkward moments -- but overall, its message remains meaningful & urgent. Conformity, fear, racism, intolerance, war -- if anything, those scourges are even more threatening today, when you'd think humanity would have learned better. It's helped by the strong, understated performance by Dean Stockwell, whose expressive face belies his years. And he's surrounded by an excellent supporting cast.

For those complaining about the film's earnest tone, remember that we're dealing with parable here, not strict realism. It was made just a couple of years after the horrors of WWII, and the psychic wounds of those years were still all too fresh in the public mind. And in any case, there's a point where simple, direct earnestness is vital. Glib, detached irony is a poor substitute for engaged human feeling.

Some scenes develop an intense, frightening power. When the gang of boys goes after Peter, planning to forcibly shave his head, it's all too similar to a lynch mob. And it serves to remind us that so much of the pain & suffering of this world is caused by men whose emotional development is stuck at an adolescent level, driven by fear & the desperate need to be the same as everyone else. Note that when Peter returns a pair of fallen glasses to one of his pursuers, the frightened boy turns on him, because he's always been picked on & teased. Rather than be grateful for Peter's help, the boy chooses to make Peter the scapegoat -- obviously thinking, "Better the freak with green hair than me!" And so the cycle of fear & violence continues ...

Highly recommended!
January 14, 2007

Thumbs Up!

A truly wonderful, totally underrated film! Didn't anyone really understand it, or were they looking at the obvious? It takes a probing mind to understand this picture; once there, the mind and the soul both will be thoroughly satisfied. August 20, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...